Airedale NHS Foundation Trust

Airedale has pledged support to the national initiative ‘John’s Campaign’ – supporting carers of people with dementia to continue caring for their loved one whilst in hospital. The campaign was set up by a carer, Nicci Gerrard, who’s father John had dementia (pictured above).  Nicci suggests has she been allowed to stay with her father at the times that mattered (regardless of hospital visiting hours) his health would not have deteriorated.

We value carers as expert partners in care and are committed to working with carers to provide the best care possible for your loved one. As a carer you could access flexible visiting to help your loved one at mealtimes or with tasks as part of their daily routine. Coming in to hospital can be unsettling for many people with dementia and can have an impact on their overall wellbeing- by having their carer or close family member nearby, this can greatly improve their experience.

Our new Acute Assessment Unit ( due to open in Autumn 2018) will have 2 larger individual patient bedrooms with facilities for a carer to stay overnight. Dementia Friends Keighley have supported the hospital to design this unit with the needs of patients with dementia and their carers in mind.

About us

Airedale NHS Foundation Trust is an award winning NHS hospital and community services trust providing high quality, personalised, acute, elective, specialist and community care for a population of over 200,000 people from a widespread area covering 700 square miles within Yorkshire and Lancashire – stretching as far as the Yorkshire Dales and the National Park in North Yorkshire, reaching areas of North Bradford and Guiseley in West Yorkshire and extending into Colne and Pendle in the East of Lancashire.

We employ over 2,500 staff and have over 350 committed volunteers.

Last year:

• We treated over 32,000 inpatients, 31,000 non-elective patients and 144,000 outpatients

• Our Emergency Department saw more than 70,000 patients

• Over 2,000 babies were born at Airedale Hospital

We provide services from our main hospital site, Airedale Hospital, and at other locations across the community – such as Castleberg Hospital, near Settle, Coronation Hospital in Ilkley and Skipton Hospital.

We are committed to providing care centred around the individual needs of each person.

This includes people with disabilities or sensory impairments, people who speak languages other than English, and people with dementia.

We will involve you, your family and carers in assessing your needs and planning your care.

We want to make sure that you have access to information you can understand, communication support when you need it, and any other support to keep you safe in hospital.

Let us know what your needs are as soon as you can. Then we can put the right support in place for you, your family and carers.

Our hospital is committed to meeting the communication and support needs of our patients and their carers. We have developed a communication toolkit to help support conversations between staff and patients using pictures and symbols.